20100530 Woodlands Waterfront

A few days ago, the evening news did a broadcast about the newly opened Woodlands Waterfront.  So mommy decided to pay the place a visit before the recent oil slick goes all the way from south of Singapore to the North.

The place is quite near to Republic Polytechnic and basically at the other side of Admiralty Park (the park which starts from the poly).

We went there around noon, and luckily it was not warm as it was cloudy, and with lots of wind too!

Near to the car park.... luckily we manage to find a place ..else we won't know where else to park!

Papa saw a ice cream man, and being the urban city boy, he immediately go and buy an ice cream cos he cannot stand the heat (though it was quite cloudy).

This is a panorama taken by mommy when Kate and papa are eating the ice cream.  All those tall buildins at the background is basically the city skyline of Johor!

The ice cream man crack the ice cream cone, and so distribute the ice cream into 2 cones, so Kate has her own ice cream!

enjoying ice cream.. the jetty is behind them...

yes..city gal also refuses to walk under the sun... insisting on staying in the stroller.. genetics *shake head*

walking to the end of the jetty... there are alot of people fishing but mommy did not see any big catch... or maybe its just too early....

the princess finally decided to come out from the stroller at the end of the jetty...

We walked back to the front of the park and go to the playground.  There is this big climbing structure.  Mommy and Kate tried to climb and  managed to get kate abit off the ground but papa is afraid that Kate will fall when mommy is not holding her and insisted that they came down. 

tried crossing the minature rope climb at the playground instead.... nowadays she is more bold..but she is still afraid of the swing (government lah! so few swings in housing estates for children to play with ...)!

After that, its back to HDB we go, for NTUC shopping and lunch before going home... end of a long weekend...

20100522

This is the first time mommy saw Kate saw a face with eyes and mouth.  So of course must post about it!

20100516 Arts Fest opening....

This must be the year of lowest attendance for mommy for these few years.  Previous year's arts festival is always filled with many free activities, but for this year, most of the activities are held at Vivocity (the other side of the island with about 1.5 hour of travelling time) and the activities at Esplanade was not announced till 'god'-knows-when.   So this year, the only thing that Kate and mommy attended is the opening ceremony held at Empress Place.

We went to po po, 3rd and 4th yi yi with Janice and Yuan Yuan.

It was raining heavily, so there is no picture taken since mommy is busy carrying Kate and the umbrella at the same time.

The kids like walking in the open when its raining though.

At the end of the walk (from City hall to Asian Civilisation Museum), we found that the museum has free opening for that day, and comes with free ice cream and kids activities too! :) So into the museum we go!

free ice cream.. of course, everyone have to pretend to love Kate's ice cream so much that the adults ate the majority of her ice cream...ahahahaa

running around....

.... and activities for kids (this is a stamping station where the kids can stamp pictures of different asian treasures on a piece of long paper and made their own bookmark!

20100513 rocker!

This is a video of Kate 'serenading' the dancing rabbit (a battery operated rabbit that dances to its own music) by pretending to be a rocker playing on a electric keyboard/guitar.  Potential to be a future rocker?

p/s the 'howling' that appears halfway through the video is from the electric toy piano.

20100510 new torchlight

Mommy's colleage passed mommy a min handheld fan-cum-torchlight as mommy was looking for it due to the terrible weather recently.

Look at how much fun Kate can have with just a simple toy like this.  That evening she was running and hopping around the house, and offering to fan everything from the shirt on mommy's back to the newspapers that she was reading..

Unfortunately, the fan was spoilt a few days later as mommy accidentally activated the fan when it was inside her bag.  The fan's engine heated up and wasted the plastic... :( mommy really can stress test things...

20100513 mother's day present...

So many of the blogs have shown the presents that the kids have made for their mommies from cc.. so here is kate's....

a  flower made of paper plate...

20100509 MBS

Papa and mommy decided to check out the newly opened MBS (Marina Bay Sands) shopping area plus the Helix Bridge.

Kathleen at the MRT station.  Mommy teased her about having her pics taken with her mouth wide open and she find it so funny she decided to pose for most photos with her mouth big as a O. :P

Demure outfit.. but at the end of the day, she was more Katy perry with her shirt hanging out, her leggings half rolled down and her hair clips gone.

Switching to the new Circle line all the way to Promenade station...  The station has an exit near Suntec Carrefour which is so convenient now that there is no need to go to Suntec via City Link.  Mommy can imagine 1) the decrease in business for the City Link tenants 2) the crowd at Promenade Station when the PC/IT shows are held at Suntec.

Did some shopping at Suntec, went for lunch, more shopping and then tea break with Donut Factory (no more queue!).  kate chose a smiley face donut for herself and a heart shape chocolate donut for papa.

Walking to MBS.  The walk is from Suntec, pass Millenia, then pass Conrad, then the Helix Bridge (actually not totally completed) , and then another long walk to the end of the MBS building before reaching the shopping area.  The bridge looks just like a normal bridge in daylight.  The walk must have taken at least 20 minutes (though it feel more than half an hour), and luckily Kate did not fuss, instead she asked mommy to carry her and fell asleep within 5 minutes despite the humid weather.

Only a few shops are opened, and alot of the boards are still up, indicating that renovation is still undergoing.  There is this funny concave glass design outside the 'back door' (facing esplanade, Shenton Way etc) which mommy later suspect is part of the fountain design (cos below it is a half completed fountain like structure).

At basement 2, there is a long structure along the stretch of the shopping hallway with could be a future canal for gondolas (like Macau casino?).

Panorama view from outside... mommy's jet can only take 4 consecutive shots, so the view is split into 2 stitched pictures....

the 2nd half with Esplanade...

After that... abit more jalan jalan (and Kate woke up) before taking the MRT home again..

Kate finding the MRT too noisy....

Mommy doesn't think she will be going back in the near future.  The shops are too high class, the place is too far to walk with a kid.  Maybe the night scene will be interesting thats all...

20100508

Checking out the new play area at Northpoint Shopping Center.  As expected, she avoided the wet play area...

20100506 drinking apple water from bowl

In the 江湖，the heroes will drink wine from big bowls, as they celebrate heroism and battles won.

In the house of 婆婆，mommy will cut a apple after dinner, peeled it, and then put it into Kate's bowl and then wash the apples.  The water will dripped and accumulated in the bottom of the bowl.  Kate will then eat the apples (and shared with other people), and then drink the water from the bowl, as if it is the best wine in the world....

20100501 labour day at the zoo

Its Labour Day, and papa worked late the night before, so mommy brought Kate to the zoo so that papa can have his beauty sleep.

At Mandai Road, mommy saw the cars all being directed to park at the side of the road by a staff.  The zoo staff then explained to mommy that the car park is undergoing renovation (until next year!) and so we have to park at the roadside, unless we opt for valet parking (which most probably they will park at the roadside too? unless they cordoned some of the remaining carpark lots for valet parking usage).

So mommy and Kate parked the car at the roadside and walked to the zoo. *Sweat*

Just after the entrance, there is a few trees where some small domesticated monkeys are jumping from tree to tree just above our heads.  Interesting! Mommy's hp is too slow to capture the monkeys who are very fast....

First visit.. the toilet.... mommy likes the toilet.. with its greenery etc.  Remains her of the toilet at Sentosa....

Next, we rushed to the elephant enclosure for the show at 1130am, only to find that the show is cancelled due to upgrading.  What a disappointment!

Then its time (yes) to find lunch.  The air conditioned ah meng restaurant was packed so mommy and Kate made their way to the well ventilated eatery next door which sells only pasta.  But lots of empty seats.  The pasta are cooked one serving at a time which means a longgggg waittttt..... *snap* pictures of Kate with the wooden carved crocodile....

After that, we walked to the Kidz Rainforest.  Along the way, we see other animals.

See this picture?  The baby zebra was born only 3 days ago!!!!

Kate took a picture of the signage explaining about zebras..cos she liked the pattern at the side..she called it a (jigsaw) 'puzzle'.

Next, the fragile rainforest... where we saw the raffesia, the largest flower in the world, and a lemur sleeping in the bush behind it....

We finally reached the water play area.. where Kate dared not go to the areas with water spraying around/being poured from a great height.  So she end up only sitting at the side of the play area playing with the water.  Under the hot sun (that explains the hat).  Mommy gave up after a while cos its hot, and Kate whined everytime another kid run by and splash water onto her.

So off we go, to watch the show the rainforest fights back, and then the splash safari.  By then Kate is very tired so we left the show halfway.

Last stop of the day, Ben and Jerry's.  Mommy bought a ice cream (she insisted on having one with the 'biscuit' (cone)).

And they shared the ice cream as they walked under the hot hot sun back to the roadside where the hot hot car (did anyone say 'freshly baked'?) car was waiting. 

And home they go.. to where papa was waiting...

p/s mommy saw some adults riding on the motorised scooter and zipping around the zoo.  Maybe next time she will do the same... getting old... very tiring to walk in and out with a kid under the hot.... :P